Macgamestore Casual Games DRM

I'm wondering what the licensing terms are regarding Macgamestore digital downloads and if any DRM is implemented. I'm interested in specifically casual games like Jewel Quest II, Diner Dash, etc. Nothing I've read on the Macgamestore web site talks about these two items.

Basically if I buy a game and use the key, is that key available to be re-used on a new machine? If I format my machine with Leopard? I've run into cases where some distributors are limiting the amount of times you can "activate" a game via it's key. In these cases the game is unusable in as little as 3 re-licenses. And in these cases there are no tools similar to iTunes where machines can be deactivated after they're no longer being used, sold, etc.

If a key is limited to a certain number of activations, then chances are that if you were to contact the developer, and explain the reason, perhaps offering to corroborate info regarding machine serial numbers etc. etc. should you hit that limit, then they will try to help you by resetting the number of activations.

as far as I know, there is no standard DRM in the MGS Digital DL store, as most of the time they will just provide you with a non-personalised name (IMG735 for example) and a serial code. The onus would then be on you to keep the relevant details together.

I wrote a review for this site of "KingMania." which is somewhat casual, and has not been posted yet. One thing I found a bit odd but I did not mention in the review for brevity's sake is:

When you first start, if you have your internet connection up and running, the game will check in to see if you are a legitimate user. If not, however, it just seems to go ahead and let you play anyway. It's my first experience with this form of DRM and I found it both silly and pointless.

Can anyone from MacGameStore confirm the use of DRM in the digital downloads? I just downloaded Jewel Quest III demo and was shocked to see it call "DRMWrapper" right off the bat. Even funnier was that it actually had a message saying "It appears that you have Little Snitch installed blocking...". Yes, Little Snitch is installed. Best piece of shareware EVER and it got way better in Leopard.

So, I'd like to know what the DRM/Activation policy is in place for digital downloads from the MacGameStore. I've yet to purchase any games from there because it doesn't state what the DRM terms are in any of the help text. I'd like to know how many activations you are allowed before the game is dead.

I'm a pretty good customer of MacGameStore, but I couldn't tell you. I don't really care about the DRM , as long as it isn't limited to a number of installs. This is of interest to find out, as if there is a limit, I'll probably stop buying from there and just buy from the developers/publishers directly.

It may seem silly that it bypasses any further security checks if you don't have web access, but I wouldn't have it any other way. If something were to go wrong with MacGameStore, or I was without internet for a duration, I would hate it if I couldn't play games I paid good money for anymore.

I'm a little miffed as to why this topic hasn't had an official response yet. DRM is a fact of life unfortunately and most companies selling digital software have a DRM policy. They also state what that policy is. Playfirst does, BigFishGames does, PopCap does, Microsoft does, Sony does, Apple does, etc, etc.

I just had the logic board replaced in my MacBook Pro by Apple at an Apple Store under warranty due to a hardware failure with the NVIDIA GPU which is know to be defective. Why is this important? Oh well you see, everything that used DRM had to be re-activated. iTunes downloads, shareware, Adobe CS3, Spore CC, etc. This causes me to lose a valid "activation" token all because of a manufacturer defect and not because I installed it on another machine. When my MacBook Pro fails again (which it will because all NVIDIA GPUs in MacBook Pros are faulty) I'll lose yet another activation token. And in the long run, I'll then lose all my software when I move to a new machine.

In closing, if MacGameStore wants my business I'd like to know what the DRM system is up front. I know it's there, why not be up front with your consumers and tell us what the process is.

I recently stumbled across a shareware game developer, CodeMinion, that has made two games for Mac. Both of their games do not include any DRM if purchased directly from their web site. I was so happy to learn about this that I purchased their newest title, Saqqarah, and then followed up with an email thanking them for not including DRM in their games. I'd much rather spend the extra money to buy directly from the developer when I know I will have the ability to use my software when I experience computer failures or get a new machine.

hey! I just had that GPU failure too.
looks like theyll really be getting an influx of them soon.

as far as im aware, most installs depend on what on the HDD and not hardware. When I got my MBP back the only thing I had to modify was Time Machine, as it ties itself to the ethernet MAC address. But the computer serial number is the same and so is everything else.

Equally, Im sure that the purveyors of the software will "gladly" (itll be a hassle, thats for sure) delete the activation token so long as you provide salient points of information.

try emailing MGS support direct, and ask that it be forwarded to Tuncer...

hey! I just had that GPU failure too.
looks like theyll really be getting an influx of them soon.

as far as im aware, most installs depend on what on the HDD and not hardware. When I got my MBP back the only thing I had to modify was Time Machine, as it ties itself to the ethernet MAC address. But the computer serial number is the same and so is everything else.

It's a pretty common problem considering NVIDIA publicly stated last month that most of the mobile GPUs they shipped in the last 18 months were faulty. Both HP and Dell announced repair programs a few weeks ago. I'm hoping Apple will do the same.

I had to re-activate my machine for iTunes (I even had to deactivate all machines since I was already at 5 due to many computer changes over the years), Adobe CS3, MediaLink (Nullriver PS3 media sharing software), Peggle (from PopCap), and a few others I can't recall off the top of my head. Some software did not require activation like my games from BigFishGames, Microsoft Vista (big surprise here!).

Anyway, I just want to know what my rights as a consumer would be and I think that anyone buying stuff from any digital distributor needs to know their rights as well. Most place have it buried in an FAQ but it's usually available.

I'm wondering what the licensing terms are regarding Macgamestore digital downloads and if any DRM is implemented. I'm interested in specifically casual games like Jewel Quest II, Diner Dash, etc. Nothing I've read on the Macgamestore web site talks about these two items.

Basically if I buy a game and use the key, is that key available to be re-used on a new machine? If I format my machine with Leopard? I've run into cases where some distributors are limiting the amount of times you can "activate" a game via it's key. In these cases the game is unusable in as little as 3 re-licenses. And in these cases there are no tools similar to iTunes where machines can be deactivated after they're no longer being used, sold, etc.

Thanks.

Any updates on this Tuncer? I'd like to know what the DRM scheme is i.e. how many activations does one get, can a game be re-installed forever, etc, etc. I've yet to purchase anything from your stores due to the lack of information regarding this topic.